Dramatic irony occurs when a character says or does something without the knowledge that the other characters and/or the readers/viewers have. An example of verbal irony would be "Nice hair" to comment on a bad haircut. Plays with the differences between appearances and reality, or between meaning and the words used to convey that meaning. The word "imagery" is also used for other kinds of figurative language, such as metaphor and simile. Imagery in literature helps the reader or viewer to become more involved in the work by providing concreteness to the setting and characters and helping in the creation of meaning. Imageryĭescriptive language that evokes all the senses and calls to the reader's or viewer's mind sights, sounds, smells, tastes and other physical sensations. For example, fiction can be categorized by length: novels, novellas, short stories, and by content: the realistic novel, romance novel, fantasy novel, mystery novel and so on.
The major literary genres are drama, poetry, and fiction, which can be categorized further by type. This term comes from the French and means "type" or "kind." Literature is divided up into genres or types, which share conventions or similar features. A writer's diction will affect the "tone" of the text and its meaning, as the writer will make choices alert to denotation and connotation. The words and grammatical constructions a writer selects and which may reveal, among other things, the nationality and level of education of the writer or of the literary character given those words by the writer. Some words have more connotations than others for example, the word "home" means more than the word "house," or the word "heart" has more connotations than lungs or appendix.ĭenotation: the explicit meaning or dictionary definition of a word. Connotation and DenotationĬonnotation: the implications, feelings and cultural associations a word has collected through its use over time, for example, the association of red roses with romantic love. A good plot springs from the characters and should help reveal character and show character development. How the characters of the work are presented to the reader or viewer, their actions, their personalities, their thoughts and motivations. When making an allusion, the author often assumes that the reader knows something about the external referent and will understand how mentioning it adds to the meaning of the work. Often an essay writer will consider one or some of these elements in relation a work's themes.Ī reference, often indirect, inside a work to something outside it, such as a person, place, event, or other work.
Of course, not every essay considers all of these formal elements.
The following is a partial list, in alphabetical order of the formal elements of literary works that are often the focus of literary study and essays. Glossary of Common Formal Elements of Literature
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